How to effectively work with multiple files in Vim

Question

I ve started using Vim to develop Perl scripts and am starting to find it very powerful    One thing I like is to be able to open multiple files at once with   vi main pl maintenance pl   and then hop between them with    n  prev   and see which file are open with    args   And to add a file  I can say     n test pl   which I expect would then be added to my list of files  but instead it wipes out my current file list and when I type  args I only have test pl open   So how can I add and remove files in my args list

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I would suggest using the plugin      NERDtree   Here is the github link with instructions   Nerdtree  I use vim-plug as a plugin manager  but you can use Vundle as well   vim-plug  Vundle

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if you re on osx and want to be able to click on your tabs  use MouseTerm and SIMBL  taken from here   Also  check out this related discussion

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If you are going to use multiple buffers  I think the most important thing is to set hidden so that it will let you switch buffers even if you have unsaved changes in the one you are leaving

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To add to the args list    argadd   To delete from the args list    argdelete   In your example  you could use  argedit test pl to add test pl to the args list and edit the file in one step    help args gives much more detail and advanced usage

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I use buffer commands -  bn  next buffer    bp  previous buffer   buffers  list open buffers   b lt n gt   open buffer n   bd  delete buffer    e  lt filename gt  will just open into a new buffer

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ls   for list of open buffers    bp previous buffer  bn next buffer  bn  n a number  move to n th buffer  b  lt filename-part gt  with tab-key providing auto-completion  awesome       In some versions of vim  bn and bp are actually bnext and bprevious respectively  Tab auto-complete is helpful in this case   Or when you are in normal mode  use   to switch to the last file you were working on   Plus  you can save sessions of vim   mksession    today ses   The above command saves the current open file buffers and settings to   today ses  You can load that session by using  vim -S   today ses   No hassle remembering where you left off yesterday

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When using multiple files in vim  I use these commands mostly  with  350 files open      b  lt partial filename gt  lt tab gt   jump to a buffer   bw  buffer wipe  remove a buffer   e  lt file path gt   edit  open a new buffer  pltags - enable jumping to subroutine method definitions

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Many answers here  What I use without reinventing the wheel - the most famous plugins  that are not going to die any time soon and are used by many people  to be ultra fast and geeky    ctrlpvim ctrlp vim - to find file by name fuzzy search by its location or just its name jlanzarotta bufexplorer - to browse opened buffers  when you do not remember how many files you opened and modified recently and you do not remember where they are  probably because you searched for them with Ag  rking ag vim to search the files with respect to gitignore scrooloose nerdtree to see the directory structure  lookaround  add delete modify files   EDIT  Recently I have been using dyng ctrlsf vim  to search with contextual view  like Sublime search  and I switched the engine from ag to ripgrep  The performance is outstanding   EDIT2  Along with CtrlSF you can use mg979 vim-visual-multi  make changes to multiple files at once and then at the end save them in one go

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I use multiple buffers that are set hidden in my    vimrc file   The mini-buffer explorer script is nice too to get a nice compact listing of your buffers  Then  b1 or  b2    to go to the appropriate buffer or use the mini-buffer explorer and tab through the buffers

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Things like  e and  badd will only accept ONE argument  therefore the following will fail   e foo txt bar txt  e  foo bar   txt  badd  foo bar     If you want to add multiple files from within vim  use arga dd    arga foo txt bar txt  arga  foo bar   txt  argadd  foo bar

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I think you may be using the wrong command for looking at the list of files that you have open   Try doing an  ls to see the list of files that you have open and you ll see      1  a      checkin pl             line 1   2         grabakamailogs pl      line 1   3         grabwmlogs pl          line 0   etc    You can then bounce through the files by referring to them by the numbers listed  e g   3b  or you can split your screen by entering the number but using sb instead of just b   As an aside   refers to the file currently visible and   refers to the alternate file   You can easily toggle between these two files by pressing Ctrl Shift 6  Edit  like  ls you can use  reg to see the current contents of your registers including the 0-9 registers that contain what you ve deleted  This is especially useful if you want to reuse some text that you ve previously deleted

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You can be an absolute madman and alias vim to vim -p by adding in your  bashrc    alias vim  vim -p    This will result in opening multiple files from the shell in tabs  without having to invoke  tab ball from within vim afterwards

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If using only vim built-in commands  the best one that I ever saw to switch among multiple buffers is this   nnoremap  lt Leader gt f  set nomore lt Bar gt  ls lt Bar gt  set more lt CR gt  b lt Space gt    It perfectly combines both  ls and  b commands -- listing all opened buffers and waiting for you to input the command to switch buffer   Given above mapping in vimrc  once you type  lt Leader gt f    All opened buffers are displayed You can    Type 23 to go to buffer 23  Type   to go to the alternative MRU buffer  Type partial name of file  then type  lt Tab gt   or  lt C-i gt  to autocomplete  Or just  lt CR gt  or  lt Esc gt  to stay on current buffer    A snapshot of output for the above key mapping is    set nomore  ls  set more   1  h     script py     line 1   2  h     file1 txt     line 6  --     for alternative buffer   3  a     README md     line 17 --     for current buffer   4        file3 txt     line 0  -- line 0 for hasn t switched to   5         etc passwd   line 42 --     for modified  b   lt Cursor gt  here    In the above snapshot    Second column   a for current  h for hidden    for previous  empty for hasn t been switched to  Third column    for modified    Also  I strongly suggest set hidden  See  help  hidden

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Most of the answers in this thread are using plain vim commands which is of course fine but I thought I would provide an extensive answer using a combination of plugins and functions that I find particularly useful  at least some of these tips came from Gary Bernhardt s file navigation tips     To toggle between the last two file just press  lt leader gt  twice  I recommend assigning  lt leader gt  to the spacebar   nnoremap  lt leader gt  lt leader gt   lt c-  gt   For quickly moving around a project the answer is a fuzzy matching solution such as CtrlP  I bind it to  lt leader gt a for quick access  In the case I want to see a visual representation of the currently open buffers I use the BufExplorer plugin  Simple but effective  If I want to browse around the file system I would use the command line or an external utility  Quicklsilver  Afred etc   but to look at the current project structure NERD Tree is a classic  Do not use this though in the place of 2 as your main file finding method  It will really slow you down  I use the binding  lt leader gt ff    These should be enough for finding and opening files  From there of course use horizontal and vertical splits  Concerning splits I find these functions particularly useful    Open new splits in smaller areas when there is not enough room and expand them on navigation  Refer here for comments on what these do exactly   set winwidth 84 set winheight 5 set winminheight 5 set winheight 999  nnoremap  lt C-w gt v  111vs lt CR gt  nnoremap  lt C-w gt s  rightbelow split lt CR gt  set splitright  Move from split to split easily   nnoremap  lt C-J gt   lt C-W gt  lt C-J gt  nnoremap  lt C-K gt   lt C-W gt  lt C-K gt  nnoremap  lt C-L gt   lt C-W gt  lt C-L gt  nnoremap  lt C-H gt   lt C-W gt  lt C-H gt

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have a try following maps for convenience editing multiple files    split windows  nmap  lt leader gt sh  leftabove  vnew lt CR gt   nmap  lt leader gt sl  rightbelow vnew lt CR gt   nmap  lt leader gt sk  leftabove  new lt CR gt   nmap  lt leader gt sj  rightbelow new lt CR gt     moving around  nmap  lt C-j gt   lt C-w gt j  nmap  lt C-k gt   lt C-w gt k  nmap  lt C-l gt   lt C-w gt l  nmap  lt C-h gt   lt C-w gt h

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Some answers in this thread suggest using tabs and others suggest using buffer to accomplish the same thing  Tabs and Buffers are different  I strongly suggest you read this article  Vim Tab madness - Buffers vs Tabs    Here s a nice summary I pulled from the article   Summary    A buffer is the in-memory text of a file  A window is a viewport on a buffer  A tab page is a collection of windows

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Why not use tabs  introduced in Vim 7   You can switch between tabs with  tabn and  tabp  With  tabe  lt filepath gt  you can add a new tab  and with a regular  q or  wq you close a tab  If you map  tabn and  tabp to your F7 F8 keys you can easily switch between files   If there are not that many files or you don t have Vim 7 you can also split your screen in multiple files   sp  lt filepath gt   Then you can switch between splitscreens with Ctrl W and then an arrow key in the direction you want to move  or instead of arrow keys  w for next and W for previous splitscreen

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In my and other many vim users  the best option is to   Open the file using     e file name extension  And then just Ctrl   6 to change to the last buffer  Or  you can always press   ls to list the buffer and then change the buffer using b followed by the buffer number    We make a vertical or horizontal split using    vsp for vertical split  sp for horizantal split  And then  lt C-W gt  lt C-H K L j gt  to change the working split  You can ofcourse edit any file in any number of splits

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I use the command line and git a lot  so I have this alias in my bashrc   alias gvim  gvim --servername    git rev-parse --show-toplevel    echo  default   --remote-tab    This will open each new file in a new tab on an existing window and will create one window for each git repository  So if you open two files from repo A  and 3 files from repo B  you will end up with two windows  one for repo A with two tabs and one for repo B with three tabs   If the file you are opening is not contained in a git repo it will go to a default window   To jump between tabs I use these mappings   nmap  lt C-p gt   tabprevious lt CR gt  nmap  lt C-n gt   tabnext lt CR gt    To open multiple files at once you should combine this with one of the other solutions

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My way to effectively work with multiple files is to use tmux   It allows you to split windows vertically and horizontally  as in     I have it working this way on both my mac and linux machines and I find it better than the native window pane switching mechanism that s provided  on Macs    I find the switching easier and only with tmux have I been able to get the  new page at the same current directory  working on my mac  despite the fact that there seems to be options to open new panes in the same directory  which is a surprisingly critical piece   An instant new pane at the current location is amazingly useful   A method that does new panes with the same key combos for both OS s is critical for me and a bonus for all for future personal compatibility  Aside from multiple tmux panes  I ve also tried using multiple tabs  e g   and multiple new windows  e g   and ultimately I ve found that multiple tmux panes to be the most useful for me   I am very  visual  and like to keep my various contexts right in front of me  connected together as panes     tmux also support horizontal and vertical panes which the older screen didn t  though mac s iterm2 seems to support it  but again  the current directory setting didn t work for me   tmux 1 8

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I made a very simple video showing the workflow that I use  Basically I use the Ctrl-P Vim plugin  and I mapped the buffer navigation to the Enter key   In this way I can press Enter in normal mode  look at the list of open files  that shows up in a small new window at the bottom of the screen   select the file I want to edit and press Enter again  To quickly search through multiple open files  just type part of the file name  select the file and press Enter   I don t have many files open in the video  but it becomes incredibly helpful when you start having a lot of them   Since the plugin sorts the buffers using a MRU ordering  you can just press Enter twice and jump to the most recent file you were editing   After the plugin is installed  the only configuration you need is   nmap  lt CR gt   CtrlPBuffer lt CR gt    Of course you can map it to a different key  but I find the mapping to enter to be very handy

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I use the same  vimrc file for gVim and the command line Vim   I tend to use tabs in gVim and buffers in the command line Vim  so I have my  vimrc set up to make working with both of them easier     Movement between tabs OR buffers nnoremap L  call MyNext   lt CR gt  nnoremap H  call MyPrev   lt CR gt     MyNext   and MyPrev    Movement between tabs OR buffers function  MyNext       if exists    tabpagenr     amp  amp  tabpagenr         1           Tab support  amp  amp  tabs open         normal gt     else           No tab support  or no tabs open         execute   bnext      endif endfunction function  MyPrev       if exists    tabpagenr     amp  amp  tabpagenr          1            Tab support  amp  amp  tabs open         normal gT     else           No tab support  or no tabs open         execute   bprev      endif endfunction   This clobbers the existing mappings for H and L  but it makes switching between files extremely fast and easy   Just hit H for next and L for previous  whether you re using tabs or buffers  you ll get the intended results

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Vim  but not the original Vi   has tabs which I find  in many contexts  superior to buffers  You can say  tabe  filename  to open a file in a new tab  Cycling between tabs is done by clicking on the tab or by the key combinations  n gt and gT  Graphical Vim even has graphical tabs

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I use the following  this gives you lots of features that you d expect to have in other editors such as Sublime Text   Textmate   Use buffers not  tab pages   Buffers are the same concept as tabs in almost all other editors  If you want the same look of having tabs you can use the vim-airline plugin with the following setting in your  vimrc  let g airline extensions tabline enabled   1  This automatically displays all the buffers as tab headers when you have no tab pages opened Use Tim Pope s vim-unimpaired which gives  b and  b for moving to previous next buffers respectively  plus a whole host of other goodies  Have set wildmenu in your  vimrc then when you type  b  lt file part gt    Tab for a buffer you will get a list of possible buffers that you can use left right arrows to scroll through Use Tim Pope s vim-obsession plugin to store sessions that play nicely with airline  I had lots of pain with sessions and plugins  Use Tim Pope s vim-vinegar plugin  This works with the native  Explore but makes it much easier to work with  You just type - to open the explorer  which is the same key as to go up a directory in the explorer  Makes navigating faster  however with fzf I rarely use this  fzf  which can be installed as a vim plugin  is also a really powerful fuzzy finder that you can use for searching for files  and buffers too   fzf also plays very nicely with fd  a faster version of find  Use Ripgrep with vim-ripgrep to search through your code base and then you can use  cdo on the results to do search and replace

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You may want to use Vim global marks   This way you can quickly bounce between files  and even to the marked location in the file   Also  the key commands are short      C  takes me to the code I m working with      T  takes me to the unit test I m working with   When you change places  resetting the marks is quick too     mC  marks the new code spot     mT  marks the new test spot

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Adding another answer as this is not covered by any of the answer   To change all buffers to tab view     tab sball   will open all the buffers to tab view  Then we can use any tab related commands  gt or  tabn                go to next tab gT or  tabp or  tabN       go to previous tab   details at  help tab-page-commands   We can instruct vim to open  as tab view  multiple files by vim -p file1 file2   alias vim  vim -p  will be useful  The same thing can also be achieved by having following autocommand in    vimrc   au VimEnter   if   amp diff   tab all   tabfirst   endif     Anyway to answer the question   To add to arg list  arga file   To delete from arg list  argd pattern  More at  help arglist

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Listing  To see a list of current buffers  I use    ls     Opening  To open a new file  I use   e    myFile pl   with enhanced tab completion  put set wildmenu in your  vimrc    Note  you can also use  find which will search a set of paths for you  but you need to customize those paths first     Switching  To switch between all open files  I use   b myfile   with enhanced tab completion  still set wildmenu    Note   b  chooses the last visited file  so you can use it to switch quickly between two files     Using windows  Ctrl-W s and Ctrl-W v to split the current window horizontally and vertically  You can also use  split and  vertical split   sp and  vs   Ctrl-W w to switch between open windows  and Ctrl-W h  or j or k or l  to navigate through open windows   Ctrl-W c to close the current window  and Ctrl-W o to close all windows except the current one   Starting vim with a -o or -O flag opens each file in its own split     With all these I don t need tabs in Vim  and my fingers find my buffers  not my eyes   Note  if you want all files to go to the same instance of Vim  start Vim with the --remote-silent option

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When I started using VIM I didn t realize that tabs were supposed to be used as different window layouts  and buffer serves the role for multiple file editing   switching between each other  Actually in the beginning tabs are not even there before v7 0 and I just opened one VIM inside a terminal tab  I was using gnome-terminal at the moment   and switch between tabs using alt numbers  since I thought using commands like  buffers   bn and  bp were too much for me  When VIM 7 0 was released I find it s easier to manager a lot of files and switched to it  but recently I just realized that buffers should always be the way to go  unless one thing  you need to configure it to make it works right   So I tried vim-airline and enabled the visual on-top tab-like buffer bar  but graphic was having problem with my iTerm2  so I tried a couple of others and it seems that MBE works the best for me  I also set shift h l as shortcuts  since the original ones  moving to the head tail of the current page  is not very useful to me   map  lt S-h gt   bprev lt Return gt   map  lt S-l gt   bnext lt Return gt   It seems to be even easier than gt and gT  and  e is easier than  tabnew too  I find  bd is not as convenient as  q though  MBE is having some problem with it  but I can live with all files in buffer I think

[vim] How to effectively work with multiple files in Vim

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